Project Manager - Business Improvements

Position Description

Title:

Project Manager – Business Improvements

Employing Entity:

Directed Electronics Australia

Reporting to:

GM - Finance

Team:

Finance and Admin

Team size:

15

No. of Direct reports:

0

Key contacts/stakeholders

Internal:

• GM Finance
• GM's & Head of functions
• Retail teams
• Customer Service
• Directed Technologies Team

External:

• Software vendors
• Clients/Partners
• Customers
• Suppliers
• EDI Provider

Get to know the team

Our Finance and Admin team plays an essential role in leading all finance, admin and commercial process activities at the Directed Group. This team provides reporting and insights which often serves as a catalyst for new projects, and a single source of truth for multiple business units.

Led by the CFO and the GM - Finance, the Finance and Admin team is mandated to enable efficiencies that supports stakeholders across Directed Group globally; driving engagement, and supporting managers and staff to achieve their strategic goals through finance related processes and planning.

Role objective and areas of focus

The primary objective of the Project Manager – Business Improvements is to drive efficiency and effectiveness across the whole Directed business, providing structure, clear workflows and execution discipline.

The role will be an integral contributor to the company's success; engaging with all relevant stakeholders across a project, maintaining close relationships with internal and external parties, and working cross functionally to provide support for the successful delivery of a variety of projects.

The role will focus on the following areas:

Project Management & Execution Discipline

Cross Functional Coordination

Process & Workflow management

Reporting & Post-Mortem Reviews

Key responsibilities

Responsibilities of the Project Manager – Business Improvements will include, but are not limited to:

• Drive executional efficiency – from planning to post-mortem, ensures projects run like clockwork.
• Hold the team accountable – no slipping deadlines, no vague deliverables, no forgotten follow-ups.
• Chair weekly project meetings – tracks progress, resolves blockers, and drives momentum.
• Working with internal and external resources to ensure effective project prioritisation.
• Manage cross functional project stages and process requirements as necessary.
• Deliver projects on time and within budget, ensuring they are compliant with brand and legal guidelines.

• Bridges all departments ensuring alignment on key deliverables.
• Works closely with external suppliers and internal resources to maintain deadlines and quality control.
• Ensures all projects fit within business strategy – nothing gets done unless it fits into the bigger picture.

• Documents existing workflows, enabling confirmation that all current activities are covered.
• Creates and gains project team sign off for proposed workflow.
• Creates project brief and gains final project approval.
• Owns the project implementation, ensures priorities are clear and tasks are tracked systematically.
• Implements and manages project management tools.
• Drives pre-read culture – no meeting happens without a clear agenda and pre-reads.

• Co-ordinates and completes all UAT testing.
• Co-ordinates go live activities.
• Monitors all activities post go live, identifying and fixing issues in real time.
• Creates SOP's for teams involved in new processes.
• Conducts and arranges all training required to support new processes.

• Owns reporting cadence, tracks project performance, resource utilisation, and timelines.
• Conducts post-mortems for every major project, identifying successes, failures, and areas for improvement.

How success is defined

Success in the Project Manager – Business Improvements role will be defined by the following:

• The accurate scoping and definition for each project including the requirements, critical path, and key stakeholders.
• Following, constantly developing, but structured project management process.
• Successful delivery of projects on time and within-budget.
• Effectively learning from and improving project delivery through post-mortem reviews.
• Driving stakeholder engagement and cross-functional team collaboration for project delivery.

The role in action

A typical day

• Consulting with respective managers and teams to understand business improvement projects that are to be scoped, prioritised or progressed.
• Review the project pipeline, update project statuses, and address urgent action items.
• Conduct daily check-ins with key stakeholders across relevant functions to ensure alignment on deliverables, building and nurturing genuine working relationships.
• Manage and update project management tools, tracking progress and flagging bottlenecks.
• Troubleshoot executional roadblocks, adjusting timelines or resources as needed.
• Re-align work priorities as required.
• Complete all self assigned work as quickly as possible.
• Complete UAT and go live testing and monitoring.

A typical week

• Chair the weekly project updates, ensuring next steps are clear.
• Coordinate with external vendors, software providers, and internal stakeholders to keep projects on track.
• Complete and review project briefs and ensure proper documentation for upcoming initiatives.
• Track progress of active projects and gather initial insights for reporting.
• Provide project updates to the GM Finance and relevant ELT members.
• Connect with teams impacted by change for feedback and learning opportunities.
• Complete UAT and go live testing and monitoring.

A typical month

• Oversee the execution of key business improvement initiatives, ensuring deadlines and budgets are met.
• Optimise workflow processes based on team feedback and project learnings.
• Conduct post-mortems for completed projects, identifying wins and areas for improvement.
• Coordinate UAT testing, go-live activities, and training for new processes.
• Align with Finance, Operations, and other business units on upcoming projects and strategic priorities.

Growth opportunities

Growth opportunities for a Project Manager – Business Improvements will vary based on the individuals' strengths and interests. Career pathways can include roles such as:

• PMO
• Senior Project Manager

Skills, interest and experience required to succeed

A successful Project Manager - Business Improvements will demonstrate:

• Project management skills – briefing, scoping and scheduling projects effectively through engaging key stakeholders to gain a shared view of objectives.
• Successfully leading projects to completion on time and within budget, working with multiple cross functional teams both internal and external e.g. sales, studio and creative teams, marketing managers, retail partners and channels, events teams etc.
• Cross-functional leadership – knows how to herd cats, push back, and keep everyone aligned.
• Data-driven & metrics-focused – understands marketing KPIs, deadlines, budgets, and impact measurement.
• Creating documentation that very simply highlights the issues, values, and benefits.
• Ability to gather, analyse and interpret data to assist in decision making.
• Identifying and delivering meaningful reporting and insights.

• Expert in Project Management tools.
• Expertise across the Microsoft suite of products.

• Highly organised and process driven, developing and implementing timelines, structure and checklists.
• Unyielding and relentless in the delivery of effective outcomes, holding people accountable.
• Attention to detail.
• Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills.
• Being meticulously planned and organised; able to communicate ideas and needs clearly.
• A 'customer first' mentality to drive value for your customer.
• Hands on.

• Positively influencing stakeholders for decision making.
• Delivering projects that excite and 'wow' key stakeholders.
• An interest in collaborating with cross functional internal and external teams.

Join the A-Team and experience the A-Life!